Korach

The great rebellion against Moshe, fomented by his jealous kinsman, Korach,
turned into a disaster for Korach and his family. The earth opened under
their feet and dwelling places and swallowed them, man, woman and child.
The fires of dispute are always so great that they scorch even the
otherwise innocent. Because of his venomous divisiveness, Korach and his
family were doomed to destruction and to disappearance. But were they? In
the book of Psalms, chapters of immortal poetry and comfort are attributed
to "Bnei Korach" as well as other chapters authored by Assaf, who was also
a descendant of Korach. So it seems, that Korach's family was not
obliterated, even when the ground swallowed them whole. In fact, the Torah
itself tells us in the Book of Dvarim that "the sons of Korach did not
die." What are we to make of their survival? How did they extricate
themselves from their doomed position?

The Midrash and the Talmud tell us that the sons of Korach did not fall all
the way down into the bowels of the earth. The elegant phrase used to
describe their rescue from oblivion is that "a place was fortified for them
above Gehinom" where they were able to survive. And in that place, in the
ruins of their lives and former beliefs, they rethought their father's
erroneous and unfair rebellion against Moshe and admitted the truth to
themselves and to others. Again, Midrash tells us that their voices could
be heard proclaiming: "Moshe is true and his Torah is true." It is this act
of honesty, of the ability to rethink and review one's positions and
prejudices, that saved the descendants of Korach from death and oblivion
and even brought them to immortality and piety. They were able to climb out
of the pit when they realized how wrong and suicidal the path of their
father had been. They stated loud and honestly that Moshe was right and
true and that they and their ancestor were false and wrong. It is not easy
to do so, even when the facts of the matter fly in your face and debunk
your previously held theory and belief. It was therefore this act of moral
courage and searing honesty that allowed the Torah to say "that the sons of
Korach did not die."

The twentieth century has been to a large extent, the century of Korach.
Rebellion against tradition and the old and the veneration of new theories
of social engineering, morality and religion have been the unfortunate
hallmark of this, the bloodiest of all centuries. Nowhere has this been
more noticeable than in Jewish life. Socialism, Communism, Secularism,
Nationalism, atheistic Zionism, Reform, Conservatism, Reconstructionism,
Femininism and other assorted theories and movements arose in this century
to claim the place of prominence in fashioning the Jewish people and its
future. All of them have proven themselves to be woefully inadequate for
the task set forth. Much of the ruin currently clearly visible in the
Jewish world is directly traceable to the rebellion against Moshe and his
Torah, against Holyoke and tradition, which marks every one of these
theories and movements and is in fact the common denominator for all of
them. From our perch just above the abyss of Jewish destruction and
assimilation, there are determined Jews who shout out loudly that "Moshe is
true and his Torah is true." But there are many sons of Korach who still
maintain the belief in the false shibboleths of this past century. After an
intermarriage rate approaching seventy percent in America, one strains to
hear the admission of error from these groups. Unless there is an honest
reappraisal of theory and belief on the part of these groups, these sons of
Korach will not survive. An admission of change of policy would be most
helpful on their part and a boon to the Jewish world at large.